As I and my fellow Missourians emerge from the vicious grip of a polar vortex from the north, where heartier types deal with these sub-zero temperatures and wind chills more frequently (and where thermometer readings are even lower, thanks to the Celsius scale), it seems fitting that today’s Friday Five highlights the work of a writer from north of the U.S. border, Brandon Nadeau, and the phenomenal literary magazine he launched last fall, MoonLit Getaway.
Brandon is a veteran of the Canadian Army (twice deployed to Afghanistan) originally from northern British Columbia, where he “snowboarded, played guitar in a metal band, and got bad grades in school.” He now lives, writes, and edits in Edmonton, Alberta. He serves as executive editor and fiction editor for MoonLit Getaway, which publishes fiction (including flash), poetry, and visual artwork every two weeks. He and his editorial team also publish book reviews and interviews with featured authors and artists on the website’s blog.
MoonLit Getaway “is meant to enrapture readers with excitement, wonder, and intrigue,” according to the litmag’s about page. “We showcase the works of new, emerging, and established creators and value the breadth of perspective that comes from a diverse group of contributors.” (Disclosure: I am quite happy to be one of those contributors; my short story “Serenity Security Solutions” was published on the site earlier this month and was accepted before I reached out to Brandon to request this interview.)
Read what Brandon has to say about how this magazine came to be, his suggestions to writers who want to be published in MoonLit Getaway, his own writing, and a forthcoming collection of the magazine’s best contributions from the first year.
1 – What inspired you to launch MoonLit Getaway?
MoonLit Getaway came out of nowhere and immediately took on a life of its own.
Early in 2024, I began building an author website and quickly realized it was boring and lacked content. Then I had an idea: what if one page on my site was something like a little literary journal? I could provide a platform for other writers while making my author site more interesting.
Right? Not exactly.
Soon, that “little” literary journal had multiple pages on my “author site” and I only had one, which, of course, was ridiculous. So, I removed the author component and changed the domain name to MoonLitGetaway.com.
Wow, I thought, I have a literary journal now. That’s weird, but let’s roll with it.
I knew I would need to help to make it work, so I did what anyone would do in that situation: I cold called (via Twitter/X DM) a writing podcaster, namely, Michael Vadney, host of Author Adjacent. I asked if he wanted to be part of the project and, to my surprise and delight, he did.
Michael came onboard as our managing editor. We became fast friends and established the journal as partners, planning the MoonLit Getaway Grand Opening Contest to generate some buzz before going live. Our contest judges included Allison Field Bell (editor’s note: Allison was featured in a recent Friday Five), Amy DeBellis, and Reem the Visual Artist, all of whom did a fantastic job and leant immense credibility to the contest.
Over the summer, our team expanded as Jacinta Manna, Olive Scott, Jennifer Trippett, and Jace DeAngelo filled various editorial positions. These amazing individuals made our official launch (September 2024) a success. All continue to do great work for the journal, with the exception of Michael, who stepped away to focus on his forthcoming debut novel, Crownfall.
So, what inspired me to launch MoonLit Getaway? This: a personal lack of foresight and the audacity to start a literary journal on a whim. However, MoonLit’s editors, contributors, and readers inspire me to keep it going.
2 – How would you describe the vibe of this literary magazine?
MoonLit Getaway is a place apart from reality. A place where the world-weary can forget their worries and focus the worries of fictional characters. We are a doom-scrolling alternative. A mixed bag of mixed metaphors where every story is a dice roll of possibility and the only common denominator is quality. Our editors aim to enrapture readers with excitement, wonder, and intrigue, and we love it when literary craft is effectively applied to popular genres. I’m not sure if I answered the question, but I enjoyed trying.
3 – What advice do you have for writers who would like to submit to MoonLit Getaway?
Follow our submission guidelines. Make us feel something. Know the rules of writing before breaking them. Understand and apply literary craft. Surprise us, challenge our assumptions, take risks, be different.
4 – Please tell us a bit about your work-in-progress collection of short stories about the War in Afghanistan?
Contact in Continuum is a collection of connected short stories about life in the Canadian Army, the Afghanistan War, and the human cost of armed conflict. The stories can be read as standalones or all together as they combine to form a larger narrative.
While fictional, the stories are informed by my own experiences as a combat soldier in Afghanistan. Early versions of some of these stories have been published in literary magazines, two of which were later republished online by Literally Stories. (Editor’s note: the stories are “Death on Rotation” and “Donn and the Mourning Moon,” and both are great reads.)
5 – What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received that you also would like to pass along to other writers?
If it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t belong.
Also: cut, rewrite, cut, rewrite, cut, rewrite, cut, rewrite, cut, rewrite, cut, rewrite…
Bonus question: What can you tell us about the forthcoming anthology, Harvest Moon?
Harvest Moon is a collection of our favorite artwork, fiction, poetry, handpicked from our online journal. Volume One will be available on September 23, 2025. Visit MoonLitGetaway.com or follow us on social media @MGLiterary for announcements about presales and discounted subscriber packages.
Andrew Careaga 